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Chris Kelly
| birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | draft = 94th overall | draft_year = 1999 | draft_team = Ottawa Senators | career_start = 2004 }} Chris Kelly (born Christopher Kelly on November 11, 1980) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Previously, Chris spent several seasons in the Ottawa Senators organization. He is an alternate captain for the Bruins during away games and was a member of Boston's 2011 Stanley Cup winning team. Playing Career Minor Hockey Career Chris started playing in the Clarington Recreational Hockey League and with the Clarington Toros AA program. For one year, he played for the Toronto Marlboros Bantams and then OHA Jr.A. hockey with the Aurora Tigers. Chris was a 4th round pick (56th overall) in the 1997 OHL Priority Selection by the London Knights. OHL Career At the major junior level, Chris had played for the Sudbury Wolves and London Knights. In 1998–99, he scored 36 goals, his best season goal-wise in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). He also played for the Bobby Orr team in the mid-season of the Canadian Hockey League Top Prospects Game. In the playoffs, Chris scored 9 goals and 26 points in 25 games as the Knights reached the OHL Final. AHL Career Chris spent one year in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Grand Rapids Griffins and three seasons in the same league with the Binghamton Senators. He also played with the Muskegon Fury (of the UHL) for four games (recovering from an injury). In 2004–05, he had finished fifth in the AHL in plus-minus with +30. Chris also finished fifth on the Binghamton Senators with 60 points, as the team finished fourth overall in the league. When he was a professional rookie in 2001–02, Chris helped the Griffins finish fourth in the AHL. In his two final seasons in Binghamton, he served as team captain. NHL Career Chris was drafted 94th overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. On February 5, 2004, Chris made his NHL debut in a match against the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of four games he appeared in with Ottawa during 2003–04. In his rookie season of 2005–06, he became a regular in Ottawa's lineup, appearing in all of the team's 82 games and registering 30 points while playing a checking role. The following season, Chris was a member of the Senators' team which advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals. On July 31, 2007, Chris re-signed with the Senators to a one-year contract worth $1.263 million. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2008 but he re-signed with the Senators on a four-year contract extension worth $8.5 million on June 20, 2008. As part of a rebuilding process undertaken by the Senators as the 2010–11 season was concluding, Chris was dealt to the Boston Bruins on Feb. 15, 2011 for a second-round selection in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Ottawa used the pick to select forward Shane Prince. On June 15, 2011, Chris and the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in seven games against the Vancouver Canucks. On April 12, 2012, Chris scored the game-winning goal in overtime in game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarter-final series against the Washington Capitals. The Bruins ultimately lost the series in seven games. A pending unrestricted free agent as the 2011-12 season wrapped up, Chris was rumored to be returning to the Senators. On June 11, 2012, he ended up re-signing with the Bruins, agreeing to a contract paying him $12 million over four years, however, the deal was quickly rejected by the NHL due to what Bruins' GM Peter Chiarelli referred to as "payroll tagging issues." As the 2013-14 Boston Bruins season started on October 3, 2013 with a home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he had his first-ever chance at a penalty shot in his NHL career in the first period of the game. Chris scored the first Bruins goal of the new season with the penalty shot against Lightning goalie Anders Lindback while the Bruins were in a short handed situation, on the way to a 3-1 home rink defeat of the Lightning. It is the first time in NHL history that a team scored its first goal of the season on a penalty shot. Career Statistics Personal Life Chris grew up one hour east of the city in Bowmanville. He met his fiancee Krissy Broderick while attending Saunders Secondary School as a member of the London Knights as a teenager. They married in Mexico in the summer of 2008. Krissy is now a elementary school teacher in Ottawa. Category:1980 births Category:Boston Bruins players Category:Ottawa Senators draft picks Category:Ottawa Senators players Category:Binghamton Senators players Category:Grand Rapids Griffins players Category:Muskegon Fury players Category:London Knights alumni Category:Canadian ice hockey players